TLN Technology Committee Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
Location: Livonia Civic Center Library
1. Usual Business
1.1 Order and Approvals
- Meeting called to order at 9:38 A.M.
- Agenda for October 20th, 2009 Approved
- Minutes from August 18th, 2009 Approved
1.2 TLN Update – Angie Michelini
1. Telecommunications Update
a. 4 additional libraries have joined the WAN
i. Canton, Independence Twp, Farmington, Birmingham Baldwin
b. Plymouth will be joining the WAN in February
2. Routers for WAN Libraries
a. TLN will be replacing existing routers at WAN sites with NVPN 3mb or opt-e-man circuits in 2009-2010. The existing routers are end of life.
b. Sites who participate in the shared system will have no additional fee
c. Sites on the WAN who do not participate in the shared system will be asked to pay for the new router.
d. TLN is working on trade-in pricing for existing equipment as well as volume discount pricing for new equipment
3. Bulk purchase orders
a. Dell e-quotes due by November 18, order will be placed on December 1
i. Windows XP OS available through Dec 2010
b. General items (flash drives, earbuds, headphones, etc.) due by Nov 23, order will be placed on December 1
4. Symantec Endpoint Licenses
a. Semi-annual order will be placed end of October
b. Shared system libraries – no additional fee
c. Non-shared system libraries: $15.70/license
5. Stimulus Grant Update
a. TLN submitted proposal for a 10 laptop mobile lab to be shared by Oakland Cty libraries
b. Our proposal is on the list of recommended grant recipients from the State to the Federal government. Our proposal was bundled with MSU’s proposal.
6. Helpdesk Statistics
a. FY08-09 – 2801 helpdesk requests processed
b. FY07-08 – 2518 helpdesk requests processed
7. SAM User Group Meeting
a. Scheduled for Weds, Feb 3, 1:30pm, Redford District Library
8. State Aid News
a. Legislature is proposing a 40% cut
b. Continue to wait for final budget numbers
1.3 Announcements & Upcoming events
2. Discussion Topics
2.1 TLN Technology Services Review
TLN Helpdesk: 734-281-3820 x134, Staffed:
- Monday-Thursday: 8am-9pm
- Friday: 8am-6pm
- Saturday: 8:30am-4:30pm
- Sunday: 12pm-5pm
- New service proposals will take place in a meeting with TLN member library directors. The meeting will take place in Redford on Friday, October 23rd and will cover 1) Video On Demand services, 2) TLN Training Room Rental, 3) Software Training from TLN, 4) EZ-Proxy DB Hosting, 5) TLN “Superbox”; customizable server devices, 6) Back IT support during local IT vacations/illness, 7) “Windows on the WAN” services,
Firewall Services, 9) Network Auditing and Design Services, 10) Security Auditing, and 11) Cloud-Based Services; example: backup over the WAN.
2.2 Windows 7 – Reactions to Demo (September Tech Comm Meeting)
- General reaction to September presentation: Favorable, yet too advanced for basic user types; not enough “meat” for technical user types (IT administrators).
- General reaction to Windows 7: Favorable. Windows 7 addressed the performance issues of Vista and adds easier access to commonly used tasks. Certain items broken in other Windows operating systems (Wireless stack, IE 8 connection and rendering issues) have yet to be corrected.
- General recommendation: only upgrade if 1) you are planning on upgrading your computers, and 2) your current software is compatible. Examples given: PWB and Polaris ILS client are not yet compatible with Windows 7. Faronics Software (DeepFreeze, WinSelect) is compatible as of the latest versions. The Professional and Enterprise editions of Windows 7 do offer the ability to run old programs in a Windows XP virtualized mode which may prove useful for required legacy software.
2.3 Green IT
- The “Green IT – Best Practices” document was sent to the Tech Comm list for approval and modification
- Basic format and suggestions centered around the 3 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
- Final Draft of document will be approved at the November 2010 meeting and available for download from TLN.
2.4 Chair-Elect Nominations
- TLN Technology Committee is looking for volunteers to fill the vacant Clair-Elect position (Vice Chair). Nominations can be made in at the next Technology Committee meeting in November or sent to the TLN “Techcomm” Mailing List. Volunteers are welcome too.
- Officer Positions Review (elections are in September each year):
- Chair: Coordinates all meetings, locations, and topics. Oversees meeting and keeps group on subject (if possible).
- Chair-Elect: Serves as backup to the Chair (a.k.a. Vice Chair)
- Secretary: Keeps meeting minutes and documentation of all Technology Committee events.
2.5 Meeting Locations for 2010
- Technology Committee is accepting volunteers for hosting meetings in 2010. Sent preferred hosting dates to Michael McEvoy (mmcevoy@northvillelibrary.org) if you wish to host a meeting.
- Note, as 10/21/2009, all locations have been filled. See schedule here: http://tln.lib.mi.us/blog/techcomm/meetings/
3. Sub-Committee Updates
3.1 Internet Faxing Committee (Emergency Calling Tree Committee)
- Refresher: The purpose of the Internet Fax Committee is to explore emergency notification systems for replacement of the current TLN calling tree. The goal are to provide better notification of TLN outages and announcements and lower calls to the help desk in the event of emergencies. Phone, Text, E-mail, and Fax solutions have been discussed.
- October Update: Committee discussed options for an Internet Fax solution with Merit.
- Merit’s lowest price for a 20-minute fax “blast” is $80/month. Merit’s price is much more expensive then consumer-based options which run $10 (or less) per month and $0.06/page (or less).
- The down side with consumer options is that none offer a true fax broadcast. They all use sequential sending at about 1-minute per page. A 60-library emergency fax would reach the last library in the calling tree in 60 minutes (or more).
- Merit’s guarantee of 20 minutes does not save a lot of time of manually faxing. Andy Halicki (TLN) tested a fax broadcast to all member libraries and found that it took 25 minutes using 3 pre-programmed fax machines.
- Discussed issues with a fax emergency notification system include: 1) time for all faxes to go through, 2) busy signals and number of resend attempts, 3) whether or not the fax machine is checked by staff at member libraries, and 4) whether or not local staff effectively communicate emergencies to other staff members.
- The next step might be to look at having yearly/quarterly education for member libraries on the current calling tree and procedures to perform before calling TLN. Such education can help to prevent breaks in the communication chain and the flow of unnecessary calls to TLN.
3.2 Video Conferencing Committee
- The currently explored Merit/AT&T option offers a $50/hour per MCU port rate and requires a minimum 3-year contract.
- Hardware recommendation: Lifesize
- Due to cost, other vendor options are being researched and explored by the committee.
4. Sharing Resources:
4.1 Security Issues
- As submitted by Andrew Mutch (WATE): Microsoft released a large security update for October including MS09-050, MS09-051, MS09-052, MS09-054, MS09-055, MS09-060, MS09-061, MS09-062, MS09-053, MS09-056, MS09-057, MS09-058, MS09-059, and others.
- See here for more information: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms09-oct.mspx
4.2 Tech Tips
- Drupal vs. Joomla discussion. Typical, one either uses and likes Drupal or one uses and likes Joomla. There are not a lot of developers that like and/or use both. The general consensus is that Joomla is easier to use, get up and running quickly and can have more stability in the modules. Drupal has a higher learning curve but is more extensible, has more modules, and seems to be better with security updates. Which CMS system is better depends largely on developer preference and availabilities of modules. For example, Drupal can integrate with Sirsi ILS system via SOPAC (the “Social OPAC”).
- Development Environment discussion: no preferred method; some libraries use separate development systems or “sandbox” devices; some use flash-drive based environments (XAMPP portable, SLAMPP, etc.); and some develop right on the production server in sectioned off areas of the web server. There are no “best practices” to be reported on this topic. Development strategies depend largely on personal preferences and budget.
- “Discovery Interfaces” – “The Social OPAC”, VUFind, Blacklight were discussed
- LogMeIn – Free remote access system that is very useful for IT administrators. Can get through firewalls without configuration.
4.3 Web Sites Worth a Look
- http://waterford.lib.mi.us/ – Andrew Mutch discussed the fast developing cycle of the new Waterford Township Public Library site. The site was created using Drupal. A brief tour of the site was given along with plans for enhancing and expanding the site’s features and content.
- http://thesocialopac.net/ – The Social OPAC (or SOPAC) is an open source “discovery interface”, which is designed to better integrate library web sites with ILS system catalogs. It supports Drupal sites and can link with many ILS systems, such as Sirsi (http://deep.bluedei.com/?p=60=1), Evergreen, Koha, and Innovative Interfaces (iii).
- http://www.vufind.org/ – VUFind another open source discovery interface.
- http://projectblacklight.org/ – another open source OPAC from the University of Virginia.
- http://www.darienlibrary.org/ - Darien Library was mentioned as an example of how a discovery interface functions. Check out the integration of their web site and catalog.
- http://www.logmein.com/ – remote access system, as discussed during “Tech Tips”.
Meeting was adjourned at 11:45am
Next meeeting: Tuesday, Novemeber 17th, 2009 at 9:30am – Location: Brighton
Submitted by Gary Oke, WTLD
Attendees
Melanie Bell (BRIT), melbell@brightonlibrary.info
Bill Bowman (IDPN), bowmanb@indelib.org
Derek Engi (TLN), dengi@tln.lib.mi.us
Garrent Hungerford (SLYN), ghungerford@ssldl.info
Lee Martin (DEXT), lmartin@dexter.lib.mi.us
Michael McEvoy (NORT), mmcevoy@northvillelibrary.org
Angie Michelini (TLN), amichelini@tln.lib.mi.us
Andrew Mutch (WATE), amutch@waterford.lib.mi.us
Gary Oke (WTLD), gary.oke@westlandlibrary.org
Martin Smith (REDF), msmith@redfordlibrary.org
Donna Winter (LVCC), dwinter@livonia.lib.mi.us
